The Java Community Process (JCP) program celebrates success. Members of the community nominate worthy participants, Spec Leads, and Java Specification Requests (JSRs) in order to cheer on the hard work and creativity that produces ground-breaking results for the community and industry in the Java Standard Edition (SE), Java Enterprise Edition (EE), or Java Micro Edition (ME) platforms.

The community gets together every year at the JavaOne conference to applaud in person the winners the JCP Annual Awards. We added a new award category this year for the Adopt-a-JSR program participants, for a total of four award categories: JCP Member/Participant of the Year, Outstanding Spec Lead, Most Significant JSR and Outstanding Adopt-a-JSR Participant. This year's unveiling will occur Monday evening, September 23, at the Annual JCP Community Party held in San Francisco at the Hilton Hotel.

With great appreciation, now for the 11th year, the community recognizes the award nominees, listed below, with their nomination justifications.

JCP Member/Participant of the Year

Azul Systems, Gil Tene* Winner *

Gil has worked diligently to provide clear advice on matters of Software Patents, IP and licensing that seeks to benefit both non-profits/individuals etc as well as organizations with vested commercial interests in Java. It's not easy delving into the depths of the legal aspects and the potential impacts of changes to the JCP, but with help from folks like Gil we're hopeful for a solid and fair outcome.

These LJC members have shown tremendous cooperation and assistance, sacrificing their personal time and traveling to other parts of the country or continent. They are great mentors and have amazingly been able to squeeze the extra hours into their busy 24-hours day schedules to contribute to the betterment of Java. These members have shown great participation during Devoxx UK 2013, a platform where a lot of Adopt-a-JSR, OpenJDK and JSR topics were covered. Everything Java has been supported and promoted by them through community mailing lists, online meetings, and through projects such as Betterrev, a Lambda tutorial, and many hackdays organized at their offices or local communities.

Mohamed Taman

Mohamed is one of the most popular leaders in software industry in Egypt. He is very professional due to his long experience and loyalty in his work, with 11 years of experience in Java industry. As a JCP Member, he worked on many JSRs especially the Java EE 7 JSRs, and is a member of the Adopt-A-JSR, Adopt OpenJDK, and FishCAT programs. You can view his blog which is helping a lot of people around the world with news of Java EE 7.

Outstanding Spec Lead

Brian Goetz, Oracle* Winner *

For tirelessly working away at an incredibly complex JSR - JSR 335, Lambda Expressions for the Java Programming Language. From a community point of view, we've appreciated his willingness to listen and consider ideas from other technologists as well as spending time with groups of developers to understand the impact of Lambdas on Java.

Jitendra Kotamraju, Oracle

As Spec Lead for JSR 353, Java API for JSON Processing, this JSR represents an important step in bringing Java into the world of the modern web. Jitu has been extremely helpful on the JSR email list and accepts suggestions from the community members.

Anatole Tresch, Credit Suisse

After Victor Grazi (also winner of a JCP Award in 2012) left Credit Suisse, it seemed taking over JSR 354, Money and Currency API, would be quite some big shoes to fill. Not only do they seem to fit Anatole rather comfortable, it looks like after the JSR passed a JCP.next Renewal Ballot earlier this year, with a bit of help by other EG Members around the world, he also turned them into Seven mile boots. Despite trying to keep this pace, he keeps open to the widest possible suggestions by other EG Members (e.g. JUGs involved making Adopt-a-JSR work very well here), Observers and Community Members, following the open and transparent mailing list. Probably a Swiss virtue, this democratic process helps resolve issues at a rather early stage and avoids single-handed decisions made in some "Ivory Tower" detached from the needs of real users.

Chris Vignola, IBM

Chris was among the first to lead a JSR based on the new JCP 2.8/2.9 transparency rules. Chris embraced this calling with gusto and enthusiasm, leverage mailing lists, wikis, and bugzilla to socialize all expert group activity. Not only did the public have full access to the expert group inner workings, including agendas, discussion materials, and minutes, they also had from day one the opportunity to engage in dialog and discussion with the entire expert group as well as with each other through a public forum, forming a JSR 352 community. Countless community discussions sharpened and enriched the spec development process by both informing the participants and factoring in community requirements. All spec reviews - and there were many - were done with full public participation and complete issue tracking. Additionally, Chris was diligent in ensuring consistency and integration with the Java EE platform by working closely with the Java EE platform group and leading his reference implementation team in working closely with the GlassFish team, making it the first Java EE 7 platform to deliver Java batch applications; given the size and scope of JSR 352, this alone was an outstanding accomplishment and a real boon to the industry!

This brings Java kicking and screaming into the modern programming language age and is seen as a catalyst for the second age of Java. It's underlying discoveries and improvements with regards to Type Inference has also resulted in a stronger JVM for all.

The web framework space is highly competitive, not only just within Java but within the entire computing space. Different ideas of how web applications should be built come and go on almost a daily basis. Despite so many different ideas, the JSF EG has managed to keep JSF very relevant and throughout the years has managed to effectively address most issues the community had with the framework. Since this web framework space is so competitive and people in this space are so opinionated, it's extraordinary hard to find the right balance. Some other important JSRs like e.g. bean validation or JMS have a far less opinionated community and I think it's relatively easier for them to reach consensus. Being the "face" of a web application, JSF is often the face of a Java EE application. Many other specs in Java EE (bean validation, CDI, expression language) are combined together via JSF. Due to its plugin structure, JSF has spawned one of the most vibrant (open source) communities that provide extensions for JSF (mainly component libraries, such as PrimeFaces, RichFaces, etc). Keeping JSF fresh highly contributes to the overall feeling of Java EE being a modern platform.

This JSR expands the scope of the Java platform to include an entirely new application type - batch applications. As old as the computer age itself, this venerated application type remains a doggedly persistent mainstay across a vast array of industries, providing key backbone processing for many business requirements. As the Java platform has matured across the domains of online, web, message-based, and other modern application types, the creeping need and resounding drum beat for batch style Java applications has only grown stronger and stronger, producing a patch work of product solutions and open frameworks, but never quite rising to the level of standardization until now. Now with JSR 352, we at last have an industry standard that establishes a powerful and well-considered programming model for Java batch applications, granting consistency, portability, and legitimacy to an industry-critical application type. JSR 352 is truly an outstanding addition to the Java platform!

This JSR addresses a need in the industry. Many leading IT experts have been wondering for years why it's been missing from the Java Platform rather than being old wine in a new package. It has been the first JSR to successfully pass a JCP.next Renewal Ballot in early 2013. Beside a very diverse, International Expert Group anywhere from Brazil to Singapore, it is also the only active JSR with the Spec Lead organization being a "Vertical" industry representative to the JCP rather than traditional IT vendors in charge of almost every other JSR. Last but not least it is by far the most modular JSR with potential anywhere from large Enterprise containers to small Embedded systems running on a Raspberry Pi or similar devices.

In order for the JCP program to be effective, red-tape needs to be significantly reduced. This JSR is significant because of the unanimous agreement it received from the EC and the community. If everyone is in favor, this should have been done long ago!

Outstanding Adopt-a-JSR Participant

BeJUG, Johan Vos

BeJUG ran several hackdays and ensured that the Adopt-a-JSR Program had prominence at all of major European Java conferences (Devoxx 3 editions, JFokus etc). BeJUG added several concrete projects that tested out Java EE 7, including a tic-tac-toe implementation that forms part of the official JavaEE 7 SDK.

CeJUG, Helio Frota, Hildeberto Mendonça

This JUG and these individual members have been continuously hosting events and spreading awareness about the Adopt-A-JSR program and related Java topics within their communities. Demonstrating the various JSRs to other Java developers during different JUG events is one of the gestures of these nominees. Despite distance and language they have not been discouraged and have shown a lot of passion and drive - which is a great example to all other JUGs in the world.

JUG Chennai, Rajmahendra (Raj) Hegde

For their great efforts to help Adopt-a-JSR program resulting in live Proof of Concept projects for several of the new Java EE 7 features (UrbanTravellers) and JSR 354 - Money and Currency API (TrakStok). The latter including even reusable improvements like a Currency conversion provider for MtGox Bitcoin exchange service, a component which could be added to the RI of the JSR. Both at JavaOne India and events organized by the JUG itself like JUG Chennai Summit, and of course regular meetings at least every month JUG Chennai has been one of the most active Java User Groups in India and Asia. It also helped the foundation of JDuchess Chennai, the only Indian Java User Group for Women and aside from Indonesia, likely the only JDuchess in all of Asia.

Morocco JUG and EGJUG, Mohamed Taman, Faissal Boutaounte* Winner *

For adopting JSR 339, JAX-RS 2.0 specification, along with many other JSRs. One JIRA issue filed by Morocco JUG on JSR 339 was classified as a "release-stopper". A quick JIRA search using the "adoptajsr" tag shows that most of the JIRA issues have been created by MoroccoJUG members. Several presentations and source code have been organized by these groups. Mohamed presented sessions about the upcoming technologies to widen the range of users in the future, especially Java EE 7 JSRs and spreading of community progress and contributions that make us encouraged to participate. Mohamed sent a clear message that Africa is here and is full of talented people who are willing to take it to the next level. Mohamed was responsible for translating an Arabic Adopt-s-JSR web page to allow more Arabs to participate.

Description of the JCP Award Categories

JCP Member/Participant of the Year - This award recognizes the corporate or individual member (either Member or Participant) who has made the most significant positive impact on the community in the past year. Leadership, investment in the community, and innovation are some of the qualities that EC Members look for in voting for this award.

Outstanding Spec Lead - The role of Spec Lead is not an easy one, and the person who takes that responsibility must be, among other things, technically savvy, able to build consensus in spite of diverse corporate goals, and focused on efficiency and execution. This award recognizes the person who has brought together these qualities the best in the past year, in leading a JSR for the Java community (Java SE, Java EE or Java ME).

Most Significant JSR - Specification development is key to the success of the JCP program and helps ensure we remain a fresh and vibrant community. This award recognizes the Spec Lead and Expert Group that have contributed (either in progress or final) the most significant JSR for the Java community (Java SE, Java EE or Java ME) in the past year.

Outstanding Adopt-a-JSR Participant - This award recognizes the Java User Group (JUG) that has made the most exemplary contribution through the Adopt-a-JSR program in the past year. The London Java Community and SouJava initiated, and are thereby implicitly recognized, in this effort for JUGs around the world to become more involved in the work of JSRs. Innovation, community engagement and technical impact are some of the characteristics that EC Members look for in voting for this award.